Harvard Referencing

The 'In-Text' System

How do I do it?

The Harvard System requires two elements: in-text citations throughout your assignment, and a list of references at the end.

1. In-text citations

Include three pieces of information about a source within the text of your work:

the name of the author or authors

the year of publication

the page number (when the information/idea can be located on a particular page, or when directly quoted)

2. List of references

At the end of your text, you must include a List of References, a list of all the sources of information you have used to research your assignment

How to do an in-text citation

Citations may be placed at the end of a sentence (before the concluding punctuation) in brackets:

The theory was first developed by Browne (Gibbs 1981, p. 89).

Another way of citing in-text is to integrate the author's surname into the sentence, followed by the year of publication and page number, in parentheses:

Gibbs (1981, p. 89) states that Browne was the first to develop the theory of...

The following is an example of a paragraph using the Harvard system:

Criticisms aside, Durkheim's work was an extraordinary contribution to the sociology of religion, perhaps more specifically to a greater understanding of the origins of collective morality. Gardner (1987, p. 74) makes an extremely important point about Durkheim when he writes “Durkheim had a lifelong interest in morality . . . For Durkheim morality was the centre and end of his work and society itself was the end and source of morality” . For Durkheim, the nature of morality was the nature of social solidarity. In The Elementary Forms Durkheim defined religion as the main expression of the deep moral sentiments inspired by society in individuals. His interest in the moral substratum of the modern social order expressed concern with the moral consequences of modernisation (Toles 1993).

To cite a direct quotation

Reproduce the source word for word and place quotation marks at the beginning and end. The author, date and page number must be included.

"Australia is a settler society" (Hudson & Bolton 1997, p. 9).

To cite a paraphrase or a short summary of an author's words or ideas

Restate the original in your own words. The author, date and page number(s) must be included.

Wartime textile rationing was imposed through a coupon system, which meant garments now had two costs: their value in monetary units and in coupons (McKernan 1995, p. 152).

To reference the overall content of a work

No need to include page numbers because it is the entire work you are referring to:

Larsen and Greene (1989) studied the effects of pollution in three major cities...

How to do a list of references

The List of References in the Harvard system is a single list of all the sources of information you have cited throughout your assignment.

Each list item requires specific bibliographic details outlined on the following pages. For example, in in the case of a book, 'bibliographical details' refers to: author/editor, year of publication, title, edition, place of publication and publisher as found on the front and back of the title page (some of these details may vary depending on the book).

A list of references should be laid out alphabetically by author surname.

If bibliographic information exceeds one line of text, then the following lines should have a hanging indent.

The title of a book should be in italics. Minimal capitalisation is recommended (e.g. only capitalise the first word of a title’s heading/subheading and any proper nouns).

A list of references should consist only of the sources cited in the body of the assignment.